Chapter 344: 344. Wonder Kid

“I’ve improved the leather,” Eury said as Dallion was putting on the boot she’d given him. “It’ll handle the flame, but nothing else will. After your fight, give me the other one and I’ll fix that as well.”

“Thanks. I’ll do that.” Dallion stood up and took a few steps. The boot felt slightly snug, but that was to be expected with new leather. Eury had modified the insides so it could handle both his kaleidervisto and dartbow. “It’s great. How much do I owe you?”

“It’s fine,” the gorgon smiled. However, she was still wearing a blocking ring, making it impossible for Dallion to determine what emotions she had. “You’ll owe me one. Just don’t get it ruined in your first fight.”

“I plan to have just one fight today,” Dallion said with an air of confidence. There was no jokiness in his words, as far as he was concerned, they had moved back to being just friends.

“I know.” A cluster of the gorgon’s snakes focused on the door. More and more of the tournament challengers were coming in. “Good luck. I’ll be waiting for you after the fight.”

“Sure.”

Dallion looked back down, pretending to adjust the holster boot. Eury must have gotten the hint, for she left soon after. Things were better this way, or at least that’s what Dallion told himself. It had been fun while it lasted, but now he had more important things to focus on and a relationship was making that complicated.

Win the fight, level up, and figure out what the Star is planning, Dallion said to himself.

Ambitious, Nil said. And I don’t even know how you’ll tackle the third one.

Very funny.

Dear boy, the only way to get through life is to laugh at it. Sometimes I wonder whether you planned this all out or just were very lucky.

Part of both.

Given the forces he was facing, Dallion had no chance of surviving if they went straight out. However, the attention he had gotten also served as his protection. The city Overseer was already keeping an eye on him, and since the first fight, so were Countess Priscord and the member of the imperial family. That made Dallion relatively untouchable in the short term. The moment people lost interest, it would be a whole different ball game. The trick was to gain enough power by then to be able to handle the inevitable fallout.

“The opening will start in one minute,” a tournament official rushed into the room. “Get ready and please make a good impression out there. Good luck!”

Taking a deep breath, Dallion followed the rest along the corridor and out onto the field. The stands were already packed by the time he got there. The countess was discussing something with the Lord Mayor, and—interestingly enough—the overseer. That wasn’t a good sign. From Dallion’s limited experience of watching new coverage back on Earth, the only time a person of importance had “a chat” with the head of security was when there were actual concerns.

The sound of trumpets filled the air, followed by a wave of fireworks. To his amazement, Dallion saw the fireworks write the number “2” in bright, multicolored blasts of light. This definitely was entertainment at its best.

Finishing the conversation, the Lord Mayor and the overseer left the countess' balcony, returning to their seats. About the same time, the imperial arrived, accompanied by the mage.

Dallion frowned. He’d only met the mage twice so far, but utterly disliked him. There was a certain sliminess that surrounded him, not the arrogance of the general, but something different.

The moment the fireworks display was over, all noise ended. Everyone on the field and in the stands looked at the countess. A confident smile on face, the woman clapped her hands. With that, the second day of fighting officially began. Calmly, the contestants went to their grid spaces.

“Cool that you made it,” someone whispered. Looking to his side, Dallion saw Celia standing a fair distance away. Being a semi-fury she had the ability to manipulate air and direct sound a fair distance away, it seemed. “Gola didn’t. Hope to see you in the third round.”

Dallion smiled and nodded.

Dallion’s opponent was waiting for him by the time he got to his fighting spot. One look was enough to tell she was a mercenary and a veteran one at that. Scars covered her arms and part of her neck. The woman was six-foot five, at least, her almost bronze skin making her muscles all the more pronounced. Grey eyes, with short brown hair, Elvira was wearing typical ranger clothes with no armor whatsoever. Using his forging and music skills, Dallion could sense several metal blades hidden in her boots and belt. Her main weapons, as expected, were two chains wrapped around each of her forearms.

“So, you’re the wonder kid?” the woman asked, not in the least bit impressed. “I thought you’d be taller.”

“Likewise,” Dallion replied, causing the woman to arch a brow. “I mean, I thought I’d be taller as well.”

There was a long moment of silence.

Dal, I say this as a friend and an experienced companion shield… for the next few weeks, don’t attempt any humor, the armadil shield said. That was worse than toddler poetry.

“Good one.” The mercenary cracked a smile.

Then again, mercenaries aren’t a tough crowd.

A split second later, Elivra split into four instances, all of them charging at Dallion. The fight had begun.

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Without hesitation, Dallion split as well, facing all of her instances with one of his own. So far, his opponent acted the way he expected her to. The month of training he had gone through the night before had made Dallion come to certain conclusions. Given Elivra’s experience, it was obvious she’d go for a ranged attack followed by a follow up at mid-range. One chain would aim for Dallion directly with the other following a few seconds later and adjust to his reaction. It was a good plan, but also had an obvious counter—rushing in at her.

Taking full advantage of his guard skills, Dallion avoided the first chain by a hair and kept on going. This made Elvira pause her attack and instinctively jump back. The second chain flew forward at Dallion. It was slightly unnerving how good the woman was at using combat splitting, even if she could only handle four at a time. However, there was one thing that she hadn’t calculated.

Lux, Dallion thought.

A blue flame emerged from the sole of Dallion’s right boot. After this, everyone at the arena would be aware of his advantage, but it didn’t matter—information leaked quickly in awakened circles.

Dallion’s speed tripled as he flew towards his opponent avoiding the second chain. Three feet from her, Dallion raised his right leg, aiming directly at Elvira. Even after combat splitting the light was enough to blind her for a moment and that was the precise moment Dallion took to grab hold of the first chain, then slash it with his Nox dagger.

A loud scream filled the air, as the guardian of the chain segment cried out in pain and agony.

Crap! Dallion clenched his teeth. The new attribute, combined with his promise to the green Moon, wracked his head with pain to the point that he felt he couldn’t go through with slicing the entire segment.

Bend, Dallion thought. I don’t want to hurt you more. I just want to break the chain.

Dallion’s hands trembled as he mentally prepared for another scream. If the chain didn’t act the way he hoped he would have to finish the job and that meant no repair would be possible. When the piece of metal bent open—far easier than it was supposed to—Dallion let out a sigh of relief.

Moments later, he jumped back out of Elvira’s vicinity, holding roughly three quarters of her right chain.

Lux, stop. Dallion dropped the chain to the ground. One down, one to go.

Returning the dagger to its place, Dallion drew the whip blade extending it with a flick of his hand. Now each of them had a ranged weapon. There was one major difference. While the mercenary didn’t seem terribly afraid, the parts of the other chain were. Now that they knew that Dallion could hear them, they started shouting, explaining that they never were meant to be used on the battlefield. Apparently, while their owner had made a name for herself fighting in this fashion, she had never actually bought a weapon for the purpose. The chains were always of the common variety she took from a blacksmith’s before heading out on a mission. Considering the dangers of the wilderness, that made sense, but was also quite sad. Any chain taken by her had the very real danger of ending up dead or discarded long before she reached her destination. The arena battle was no different.

I don’t want to harm you, Dallion addressed the chain pieces. I just need to disarm her.

Why hurt us? A chorus of voices asked. We’re just temps. Hurt the daggers! They are linked to her.

It didn’t seem there was much loyalty between Elvira and the chains. Then again, Dallion didn’t expect there to be, everything considered.

All I need is a chance to break the connection. I promise I’ll mend you once the fight is over.

“Crackling blade,” Elivra said. “Cute. There’s a lot more of them in the wilderness.” She started spinning the other chain.

“Bandits?” Dallion asked, raising his armadil shield.

“Creatures.” The way she said it suggested that she went through a lot of chains on her missions. “You’re different. You don’t have any bloodlust. Also, on the field, no one can die.” She threw the chain at him.

It wasn’t difficult to avoid a flying chain. Dallion, however, knew better than to try. For her to make something as obvious meant she had something else in store. Taking the full brunt of the attack with his shield, Dallion lashed out at her with his whip blade. That proved to be a mistake. Bending back, Elvira let the line of metal segments pass above her, then similar to Dallion, grabbed it with her right hand. The remnants of the first chain kept her hand safe as she held on, while her left drew a dagger from her belt and struck Dallion’s whip blade.

A resounding clang filled the air, the same that Dallion had heard hundreds of times whenever Nox tried to sharpen his claws in his domain. There was no way Dallion could have seen that coming—the opponent of this fight had a dagger similar to his own.

Didn’t you say that there were no such weapons? Dallion asked.

It’s because there aren’t, Nil replied. You put a living crackling pet, which is almost an oxymoron in itself, in an indestructible training dagger that was crafted thousands of years ago. What Elvira has is a nail of a real-world creature with crackling abilities that she stuck to a hilt.

Looking at it, Dallion saw that the echo was correct. The dagger that his opponent was holding was very different from his own. The blade wasn’t made of metal, but of some other material that Dallion hadn’t seen. Also, it had its own guardian that wasn’t a familiar.

Splitting into three instances, Dallion tugged the whip blade back. Seeing that she couldn’t harm it in any way, Elvira released it, then straightened back up.

The fragments snapped back into place. Nox dagger versus crackling blade. This was going to be a tense fight and while Dallion’s whip blade was immune to the effects, Dallion’s harpsisword and armadil shield weren’t. And just to raise the stakes, Elvira drew a second crackling dagger.

I guess you can find all sorts of things in the wilderness, Gen said.

Cautiously, Dallion took off the shield strapped to his left hand and dropped it to the ground. This was one thing he didn’t want to risk.

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